Songs as a medium for embedded reproductive messages

Dawn R. Hobbs, Gordon G. Gallup

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From the book : Evolutionary Psychology 9 issue 3 : 390-416.
Research shows that sensational news stories as well as popular romance novels often feature themes related to important topics in evolutionary psychology.
In the first of four studies described in this paper we examined the song lyrics from three Billboard charts: Country, Pop, and R&B.
A content analysis of the lyrics revealed 18 reproductive themes that read like an outline for a course in evolutionary psychology.
Approximately 92% of the 174 songs that made it into the Top Ten in 2009 contained one or more reproductive messages, with an average of 10.49 reproductive phrases per song.
Although differences in the frequency of different themes between charts were found, further analyses showed that the most popular/bestselling songs contained significantly more reproductive messages.
An analysis of the lyrics of opera arias and art songs also revealed evidence for many of the same embedded reproductive messages extending back more than 400 years.

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• Publié par: evolutionary-psychology
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Licence : En savoir +
  Paternité, pas d'utilisation commerciale, partage des conditions initiales à l'identique
• Langue: English

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Evolutionary Psychology
www.epjournal.net – 2011. 9(3): 390-416
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Original Article
Songs as a Medium for Embedded Reproductive Messages
Dawn R. Hobbs, Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany,
NY, USA.
Gordon G. Gallup, Jr., Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York,
Albany, NY, USA. Email: [e-mail] (Corresponding author).
Abstract: Research shows that sensational news stories as well as popular romance novels
often feature themes related to important topics in evolutionary psychology. In the first of
four studies described in this paper we examined the song lyrics from three Billboard
charts: Country, Pop, and R&B. A content analysis of the lyrics revealed 18 reproductive
themes that read like an outline for a course in evolutionary psychology. Approximately
92% of the 174 songs that made it into the Top Ten in 2009 contained one or more
reproductive messages, with an average of 10.49 reproductive phrases per song. Although
differences in the frequency of different themes between charts were found, further
analyses showed that the most popular/bestselling songs contained significantly more
reproductive messages. An analysis of the lyrics of opera arias and art songs also revealed
evidence for many of the same embedded reproductive messages extending back more than
400 years.
Keywords: song lyrics, reproductive messages, sales
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“Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take,
I’ll be watching you” (from Every Breath You Take, by Sting and Andy Summers,
copyright 1983).
Introduction
Sensational news stories and popular romance novels often feature themes related
to important topics in evolutionary psychology. Davis and McLeod (2003) analyzed front-
page news stories from a cross section of different countries over a period of 300 years.
Prominent news items tended to feature stories about crime (stealing, murder, and physical
assault), injury, death, altruism, abandonment, reputation, harm to children, and rape.
Rankings of the content of sensational news stories showed substantial consistency across Songs as reproductive messages
different time periods. Davis and McLeod concluded that the appeal of sensational news is
a byproduct of human predispositions to attend to information that has
reproductive/adaptive value.
More recently, Cox and Fisher (2009) analyzed the titles of contemporary romance
novels to determine if their popularity might be related to evolutionary themes that would
be expected to have widespread appeal when it comes to some of the unique and recurrent
reproductive issues that women confront. The five most common words featured in
romance novel titles were love, bride, baby, man, and marriage, in that order. Common
themes extracted from these titles included commitment, reproduction, masculine/high
ranking suitors, and resources. Because the costs of reproduction are so much higher for
women than men, because women have a strong vested interest in the other 50 percent of
the genes being carried by their children, and because of their need for protection and
provisioning, these themes have high reproductive relevance for females. Cox and Fisher
conclude that because women who read romance novels are “voting with their money,”
these results have real world relevance.
In the present series of studies, we analyzed the lyrics in popular songs in an
attempt to identify the existence of embedded reproductive/evolutionary messages. Being
the first of their kind, these were largely descriptive studies.
The adaptive value of music eluded scientists for a long time. While Pinker (1997)
has been quick to dismiss music as “auditory cheesecake,” Darwin (1871) suggested that
music may have evolved as a form of courtship display by means of sexual selection.
Following Darwin’s lead, there is now growing interest in the origins of music (e.g.,
Mithen, 2006; Wallin, Merker, and Brown, 2000). Research conducted by music
psychologists has identified connections between music and social behavior, and shows
that music preferences are related to an array of interesting personality dimensions
(Rentfrow and Gosling, 2003). But rather than addressing music per se, our research
focused on the written lyrics that comprise popular songs.
Study 1
The initial study consisted of a content analysis of the lyrics contained in the top
ranked 2009 songs in three popular music genres: Country, Pop, and R&B (Rhythm and
Blues).
Materials and Methods
Table 1 contains a list of the reproductive categories that we extracted from a
content analysis of the written lyrics in the initial sample of 174 songs that made it into the
Billboard Top Ten for Country, Pop, and R&B charts during 2009. These genres were
chosen so as to capture a wide cross section representing mainstream American music.
Billboard tracks the popularity of songs through a number of different charts which
are published weekly on their website: www.billboard.com. Using the individual charts for
Country Songs, Pop Songs, and R&B/Hip Hop Songs, we examined the charts published in
the first week of every month for the year 2009 and analyzed the Top Ten songs from each
Evolutionary Psychology – ISSN 1474-7049 – Volume 9(3). 2011. -391-


Songs as reproductive messages
of these individual charts.
For purposes of deriving/identifying categories, references having to do with
courtship, sex, pair-bonding, parenting, fidelity, mate guarding, and provisioning were
initially targeted, along with themes related to long-term as well as short-term mating
strategies. In the process of attempting to code the lyrics it became apparent that emotional
expressions could be partitioned into different action references. For instance, “love” could
either convey commitment, fidelity assurance, or a non-specific state. “Love” represents
commitment when sung as “I love you.” It represents fidelity assurance when coined as
“Do you love me?” And it is rendered non-specific when used in phrases like “I would love
to go to the park with you.” In this way, our coding system transformed subjective
emotions into objective actions. As shown in Table 1, we were able to distill most of the
reproductive messages into 18 specific categories, along with one additional default
category for those that were reproductively relevant but did not fit the other categories
(e.g., incest).

Table1.Codingcategorieswithlyricexemplars
Coding Category Description Lyric Exemplar
Genitalia Any explicit, implicit, implied “My anaconda don’t want
none unless you got buns, or slang reference to genitalia.
hon” from ‘Baby Got Back’
by Sir Mix-A-Lot 1992
Other Body Parts References to any other body “Her body [is]built just like a
part other than genitalia, coke bottle”from ‘That Girl’
including waist to hip ratios and by Frankie J. 2006
shoulder to hip ratios.
“Put your pretty little arms
around me” from ‘Big Green
Tractor’ by Jason Aldean
2009
Courtship/Long Term Mating References to dating, hand- “Dance with me/ I want my
Strategies holding, and other sincere arm about you/That charm
courtship displays and about you will carry me
through to heaven…I seem overtures.
to find that happiness I
seek/When we’re out
together/Dancing cheek to
cheek” from ‘Cheek to
Cheek’ by Irving Berlin 1935
“Oh please, say to me/You'll
let me be your man/And
please, say to me/You'll let
me hold your hand” from ‘I
Wanna Hold Your Hand’ by
the Beatles 1963
Evolutionary Psychology – ISSN 1474-7049 – Volume 9(3). 2011. -392-


Songs as reproductive messages
Hook Up/Short Term Mating References to short-term mating “Let’s have some fun/ This
Strategies strategies such as “hooking up” beat is sick/ I want to take a
and overt solicitations for short ride on your disco stick”
term relationships. from ‘Love Game’ by Lady
Gaga, 2009
Foreplay/Arousal/Sex Act Any reference to kissing, “Sugar, sugar/ Ah honey,
fondling or undressing, as well honey/ You are my candy Precursors
as physiological precursors to girl/ And you've got me
intercourse. wanting you/
When I kissed you, girl, I
knew how sweet a kiss could
be” from ‘Sugar, Sugar’ by
The Archies 1969
Sex Act Any explicit, implicit, implied “Seeing your black dress hit
or slang reference to s